Child car seat incorporating means of guiding the lap strap

ABSTRACT

A juvenile vehicle seat is adapted to be installed on a seat of a motor vehicle. Safety belt straps included in the vehicle are used to retain the juvenile vehicle seat in place on the motor vehicle seat.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The field of the invention is child care.

More precisely, the invention concerns a child car seat, intended to be installed on the seat of a motor vehicle, and retained by the safety belt straps of the latter.

More precisely, the invention concerns child car seats having on their lower part an area that guides the strap of the safety belt across the front face of the child car seat, opposite the backrest.

PRIOR ART

Numerous types of child car seats are known. The classical technique maintains the child car seat in place using one of the vehicle's safety belts.

Most commonly, the safety belt crosses diagonally at the level of the child car seat backrest and lies flat against the seat or bench backrest of the vehicle.

Another recently developed approach proposes fitting vehicles with a system of rigid metal clamp attachment that connect to metal stems intended for that purpose in the vehicle (ISOFIX System®).

Another approach that has been developed consists of passing the lap strap of one of the vehicle's safety belts over a contact surface on the lower part of the child car seat, in an area somewhat far-off from the backrest. An embodiment of this particular technique is disclosed in patent document EP-1 406 784.

This latter technique has certain advantages, particularly in ergonomic terms. The putting in place of the safety belt is relatively easy compared with methods that have the straps run behind, in the various systems of retaining the child car seat.

This invention concerns this third approach of fixing the child car seat.

DRAWBACKS OF PRIOR ART

One of the major drawbacks of this approach is that the child car seat is insufficiently supported laterally and is subject to great lateral motion. For example, any force applied to the side of the child car seat can result in the tilting of the child car seat. Even if the child car seat is sufficiently well retained in case of an impact, such motion confers an impression of danger on the system, as well as resulting in a lack of comfort for the child.

Furthermore, the child car seat may hit a passenger sitting next to it.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE INVENTION

These aims, along with others that will appear more clearly in the following, are achieved by employing a child car seat that is intended to be firmly fixed to a vehicle seat by at least one safety belt fitted to said vehicle, namely the lap strap, said child car seat comprising one part forming its backrest, one part forming its seat, and comprising or resting upon a supporting base that bears on said motor vehicle seat, said base support part having four portions, a frontal portion, distant from the seat backrest, a rear portion, in close proximity to the seat backrest, and two lateral portions, said support being adapted so as to receive said lap strap in or on said frontal portion.

According to the invention, said frontal portion and an essential part of each of said lateral portions define a contact surface in a substantially vertical plan, and said lateral portions each bear at least one lateral strap guide element, close to said rear portion, able to receive and maintain said lap strap substantially vertically against said contact surface.

Thus, the lap strap is guided towards the rear of the child car seat, thus limiting the seat's tipping moment, or moment arm, in relation to the seat belt fastening points of the vehicle.

In other words, the path followed by the lap strap between the frontal portion and the fastening point of the strap is not a straight segment but defines, on the contrary, an angle close to the right angle (e.g. 100-115°) formed at proximity of the back of the car seat.

In this manner, any lateral motion is simply and efficiently reduced, while retaining the passing of the diagonal strap in the frontal portion.

It is worth-noting that the lap strap is maintained almost vertical when it is placed flat along the contact surface, to ensure an efficient support. If the contrary were the case, and the lap strap would extend horizontally, the latter would become twisted by lateral movement, and would not be able to prevent or reduce sideways motion.

These strap guiding elements furthermore facilitate the use of the seat belt lap strap, by confirming that its position is correct in a direct and visual manner.

In an possible manner, the child car seat comprises at least one frontal strap guiding element parallel to at least one part of said frontal portion.

According to a specific embodiment, at least one of said strap guiding elements forms a housing with said support, that forms a base and a wall that is substantially vertical.

In this case, advantageously, at least one of said strap guiding elements has an upper part covering said housing.

This makes the fixing means secure and allows the user to check that installation has been correctly carried out.

Said substantially vertical wall and said upper part may also form a slot for the passage of said lap strap.

According to another aspect of the invention, said substantially vertical wall may extend over at least a portion of the width of said strap.

This facilitates the fitting of the strap. In this case, the strap guide may be adapted to bring the strap into the correct position when stretched and/or released by the user.

Notably, said significantly vertical wall may similarly cooperate with a plane inclined away from said child car seat.

According to one particular embodiment of the invention, the seat comprises at least two frontal strap guiding elements, symmetrically distributed.

The invention arrangement advantageously comprises a frontal strap guiding element extending over an essential part of said front portion.

According to one particular feature of the invention, at least one of said strap guiding elements comprises at least one mobile element to facilitate the putting in place and/or removal of said lap strap.

This may, for example, be a rotating mobile element, in which the strap is inserted before bringing it to its working position.

Preferably, at least one of said strap guiding elements comprises and/or cooperates with a guiding element intended to bring said lap strap into the correct position.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the invention will become clearer when reading the following description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, given here as simple, non-limiting illustrations, along with drawings in which:

FIG. 1 schematically shows a child car seat according to the invention, side-view;

FIGS. 2 and 2 b schematically illustrate the respective installing of a lap strap, according to prior art and then according to the invention;

FIG. 3 presents one specific embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows an enlarged view of the strap guiding elements of the child car seat shown in FIG. 3;

FIGS. 5 a to 5 b show in a simplified manner the various possible embodiments of the invention,

FIGS. 5 a, 6 a, 7 a, and 8 a show a lateral portion of the base, and FIGS. 5 b, 6 b 7 b, and 8 b show an overhead cross section of the same base;

FIG. 9 shows yet another embodiment of the strap guiding means, employing an inclined plane.

DESCRIPTION OF ONE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION

The general principle of the invention is therefore to ensure the guiding of a safety belt lap strap, in such a way as to ensure that the child car seat shall not be subject to any strong side motions, for example if the vehicle is involved in an impact or takes a curve too fast.

For this purpose, the lap strap is guided, on the one hand, to a portion of the child car seat base facing the front of the vehicle (i.e., away from the backrest of the child car seat), and on the other hand towards the rear of the seat, to retain it along the length of the base.

Such a child car seat is shown in FIG. 1. Classically, this comprises a backrest 11, a seat 12 and a base, or pedestal, 13, on which the seat is mounted (where necessary it may be mobile, by pivoting and/or tilting). Depending on the case, base 13 may serve as a guide for the tilting and/or rotation of the child car seat, allowing it to be removed from the base, or it may simply correspond to the lower part of the child car seat, forming the seat base.

Base 13 sits on the rear bench seat or front seat of the vehicle and cooperates with the safety belt, particularly the lap strap 14, to securely retain the child car seat in relation to the vehicle.

Base 13 therefore presents, on its frontal portion 131, a surface or a portion that guides the strap.

Base 13 furthermore has a strap guiding element 15, mounted on the lateral portion 132 of the base. This ensures the holding of strap 14 along a large part of this lateral portion, bringing the strap towards the rear of the seat.

Thus, the child car seat is firmly held and lateral motion is less likely to take place. In fact, as shown in FIG. 2 b, which schematically shows base 13 seen from above the frontal portion 131 of the base, it forms a guiding area for strap 14. In prior art techniques, shown in FIG. 2 a, the strap moves away from the lateral portions 132 and 133, thus introducing a relatively large amount of clearance and therefore allowing side motion.

On the contrary, with a child car seat according to the invention, as shown in FIG. 2 b, the strap elements 15 hold the lap strap 14 along large lateral portions 132 and 133. It is easily understood, that if this is the case, any lateral motion is greatly reduced, thus improving the user's sense of safety and the comfort of the child.

In other words, the approach of the invention forces the strap 14 to form an angle α, close to the back of the child car seat, that is to say close to the backrest, whereas, according to prior art (FIG. 2 a), it stretches across, in a straight line. This angle α is theoretically close to a right angle (and is in practice greater than a right angle, for instance 100° to 115°, because the guiding strap is a little shifted compared to the back of the child car seat, for ergonomic purposes, notably concerning the installation of the strap), so that the strap runs almost parallel along the backrest of the vehicle seat between the fixing point of the lap strap and the guiding strap 15 element, then more or less perpendicular to this backrest, along the side portion 132.

One notes that the strap 14 is maintained vertically, or more or less vertically, placed flat along the contact surface, or support surface, defined by the frontal portion and the side portions.

Therefore, the approach taken by the invention simply and efficiently reduces any tilting movement.

FIG. 3 shows an example embodiment of the invention. Base 13 has on the one hand a strap guide 15 on the latter portion 132, in proximity to the backrest of the child car seat, and on the other hand a second strap guide 31 mounted at the junction of lateral portion 132 and frontal portion 131.

These two guiding elements are clearly shown in the enlarged view in FIG. 4.

Element 31 has a significantly triangular shape that facilitates the placing, or installing, of the strap.

Element 15 forms a housing, or case, for strap 14, with a lower portion 151 having a significantly L-shaped section intended to receive the strap, and a covering portion 152, separated by a slot 153. Thus, the user introduces the strap in slot 153, and it is then guided along the length of the base by element 151. Element 152 stops the strap from disengaging in any unwanted manner from the housing formed by strap guide 15.

Thus, the strap guide holds the strap along the base, or in proximity to it, until coming close to the rear of the child car seat, and thus in proximity to the backrest of the vehicle seat.

Several alternative ways of implementing this embodiment may be envisaged in order to ensure this function.

Thus, in FIGS. 5 a and 5 b, a strap guide 15 is provided at the rear part of lateral portion 132, as well as an additional strap guide 51 spreading over the whole of the front portion 131, or at least over a large part of it.

According to another approach, shown in FIGS. 6 a and 6 b, a single strap guide 61 is provided, covering the whole of the front portion 131 and a major part of the two lateral portions 132 and 133.

According to the means of embodiment shown in FIGS. 7 a and 7 b, a plurality of strap guides 71, 72, 73, 74 and 75 are distributed over the whole distance over which the strap must be guided.

Moreover, as shown in FIGS. 8 a and 8 b, it should be noted that it is important that, according to the invention, the strap is brought to the rear, and for example held over a major part of the lateral portion of the base. On the other hand, it is not mandatory that it passes over the frontal portion. A guiding area may be foreseen inside this central portion, for example in the form of slot 81.

According to one aspect, particularly adapted to the frontal portion, the strap guide may be a truncated housing, as illustrated in the cross section in FIG. 9. The latter shows the frontal portion of the base, in an embodiment in which the strap guide can be produced by appropriately moulding the base.

This thus produces housing 101 for strap 102, formed by the bearing surface 1011 of the strap, a back surface 1012 and a wall 1013 covering several centimetres or millimetres (corresponding, in one embodiment, to half the width, or less, of the strap). This limited height facilitates the putting in place of the strap.

The wall 1013 extends away from housing 101, an inclined plane 103 functions to assist and guide the right putting in place of strap 102. In fact, if the user places the strap on inclined plane 103, it is clearly apparent that it will not be efficiently retained. By adapting the configuration of inclined plane 103, the latter directly guides the strap 102 into housing 101 when the strap is taut, or strectched. Thus any potentially wrong use is avoided and safety is improved.

More generally, a means of guiding can be foreseen that systematically leads the strap into the correct position at the level of the base and strap guide.

According to another aspect of the invention, it is possible to provide strap guides with mobile means, allowing an easier inserting or removing of the strap.

Therefore, the invention overcomes disadvantages found in prior art.

More precisely, the invention is to provide a child car seat providing a passage of the strap stretching forward, on its lower area, that is less subject to any lateral movement, particularly in case of an impact or a sudden change of direction of the vehicle.

Thus, the invention provides a technique that increases the child's comfort by limiting the movement of the child car seat.

Moreover, the technique according to the invention avoids the child car seat hitting another passenger.

The invention also provides a technique that is both inexpensive, easy to install and remove by any user. 

1. A child car seat, intended to be fastened to a seat of a motor vehicle with the help of at least a lap strap of a safety belt fitted to said vehicle, said child car seat comprising one part forming a backrest and one part forming a seat, said seat comprising or resting on a supporting base that rests on the motor vehicle seat, said base comprising four portions, a frontal portion, distant from said backrest, a rear portion, close to said backrest, and two lateral portions, said supporting base being suitably adapted to receive said lap strap in or on said frontal portion; wherein said frontal portion and an essential part of each of said lateral portions define a contact surface in a substantially vertical plan, and wherein said lateral portions each bear at least one lateral strap guide element, close to said rear portion, able to receive and maintain said lap strap substantially vertically against said contact surface.
 2. A child car seat according to claim 1, wherein said frontal portion comprises at least one frontal strap guide element extending parallel to at least part of said frontal portion.
 3. A child car seat according to either of claims 1 and 2, wherein at least one of said strap guide elements forms a housing, cooperating with said supporting base, and having a substantially vertical wall.
 4. A child car seat according to claim 3, wherein at least one of said strap guide elements has an upper part covering said housing.
 5. A child car seat according to claim 4, wherein said substantially vertical wall and said upper part define a slot for the passing of said lap strap.
 6. A child car seat according to claim 3, wherein said substantially vertical wall extends to at least one portion of the width of said strap.
 7. A child car seat according to claim 6, wherein said substantially vertical wall cooperates with a plane inclined away from said car seat.
 8. A child car seat according to claim 2, comprising at least two frontal strap guide elements, symmetrically distributed.
 9. A child car seat according to claim 2, comprising a frontal strap guide element extending over an essential part of said frontal portion.
 10. A child car seat according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said strap guide elements comprises at least one mobile element to facilitate putting in place and/or removal of said lap strap.
 11. A child car seat according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said strap guide elements comprises and/or cooperates with a guiding element intended to bring said lap strap into the correct position. 